You can create new backups or view your existing backups on the Database Backups page. You can also restore a backup from your Acrolinx installation or from another Acrolinx installation if the database schema versions are the same.
Backups are also useful when you want to connect to an external reporting database. For example, you can restore your reporting data from the default database to an external reporting database.
To create and restore database backups, navigate to Analytics > Administration > Database Backups. To view this page, you need to have a role that includes the privilege to create and restore backups.
We recommend that you use your database's native environment to regularly back up your data. Depending on the size of your database, it can take a long time to create and restore a backup with Acrolinx. The backup might even fail if your memory resources are insufficient.
When you start or restore a database backup, Acrolinx temporarily blocks your analytics and reporting databases until the task is complete. You can still run checks when the analytics and reporting databases are blocked, but no data gets written to the databases. To ensure the integrity of the databases, Acrolinx also prevents other Dashboard users from starting a parallel backup or restoring another backup.
If Acrolinx is taking too long to create a database backup, you can cancel the task. However, once you’ve started to restore a database backup, you can’t cancel the task.
A database backup is a complete export of your entire analytics and reporting databases as a ZIP file. It has all database tables from the analytics-specific JReport databases and your reporting database, plus any custom user and document information that you've configured. The backup also includes any Custom Dashboards that you create. These tables get exported in the JSON format (JavaScript Object Notation).
You can also back up the data structure only, without the Analytics data. The data structure includes any Custom Dashboards and Content Groups that you've configured in the Dashboard. This is especially helpful when you want to migrate your setup between instances without migrating your Analytics data.
Notice
When the backup task is running, make sure that users don’t run checks from connected Acrolinx Integrations. This is important to ensure that the database is in a consistent state.
When you start a database backup, Acrolinx checks to see if there are any pending checks in the checking queue. The backup starts straight away if no checks are pending. If checks are still pending, the backup starts as soon as all pending checks are finished. When you start a check after the database backup is initiated, it won’t count toward the number of pending checks. If you notice that a database backup takes significantly longer to start, check the core server log file. Acrolinx regularly adds an updated entry with information about the number of pending checks.
To create a database backup, follow these steps:
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Navigate to Analytics > Administration > Database Backups.
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(Optional: Only do this if you want to back up your database structure without the Analytics data)Select the option Back up the data structure only
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Click Create New Backup.
To store your backup, click Download in the Actions column.
Notice
Make sure to download and save your backups immediately. Once you restart the Acrolinx Platform, your backups won’t be available.
You can also restore backups of your reporting and Analytics databases from Acrolinx installations that have the same database schema version
To cancel the backup task, click the Cancel button next to the progress bar.
You might restore a backup of your analytics and reporting databases if your databases become corrupted. You might also need to restore a database backup to move your data from the default database to an enterprise database format. We don't recommend that you restore a database backup to the default databases that come installed with Acrolinx.
Tip
Only restore a backup within the same Acrolinx database schema version. If you need to restore a previous database schema version, restore the backup in the corresponding Acrolinx version and then update your Acrolinx Platform. Acrolinx automatically migrates your data when you update.
When you restore a database backup, make sure to run no checks from connected Acrolinx Integrations. This is important to ensure that the database is in a consistent state.
To restore a database backup, follow these steps:
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Navigate to Analytics >Administration > Database Backups.
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Locate the backup in the Available Backups section, and in theActions column, click Restore.
Notice
To restore a backup that is stored on your computer or at a network location, upload the backup file to your Acrolinx Platform first (see below).
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In the security dialog that appears, enter the word yes and click OK.
Tip
This type of dialog is an extra precaution to prevent you from overwriting your reporting database unintentionally. When you restore a database backup, all analytics and reporting data is overwritten with the data from the backup.
If you’ve downloaded a database backup from an Acrolinx installation, you can upload the backup file to another Acrolinx installation with the same version. After you’ve uploaded the backup, you can restore the database backup to the second installation.
To upload a database backup to the server, follow these steps:
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Navigate to Analytics > Administration > Database Backups.
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In the Available Backups section, click Browse, select the backup file and click Upload. You can only upload a
.zipfile type.
Once the backup file has successfully uploaded, a new entry for the backup appears in the Available Backups table. You can click Restore in the Actions column.
Notice
After you upload a backup, make sure to restore it immediately. Uploaded backups won’t be available once you restart the Acrolinx Platform.
If you’ve uploaded a corrupted or invalid backup file, you can delete it by clicking Delete in the Actions column. A backup file can become corrupted if you stop the Acrolinx Platform before the backup completes. Additionally, you might see this action if you select the wrong file to upload. To remove the file from the list, click Deletein the Actionscolumn.